Honduras
A growing Central American producer, with cacao planted partly as an alternative to less stable crops and a speciality sector building around the Wampusirpi and Copán areas.
Honduran cacao production has expanded over the past two decades, supported by development programmes promoting it as a perennial crop with better price stability than some alternatives. Growing areas include the north coast, the Copán region and, notably, Wampusirpi in the Gracias a Dios department, where Miskito communities produce cacao in remote forest conditions.
The country also holds archaeological significance: some of the earliest chemical evidence for cacao use in Mesoamerica comes from Honduran sites.
- Flavour families
- fruity, floral, nutty
- Named growing regions
- Copán, Wampusirpi(recorded in the catalogue; the regional index is not yet published)
Growing conditions
Grown on the north coast, around Copán, and in remote forest areas of Gracias a Dios, generally under shade.
History
Some of the earliest chemical evidence of cacao use in Mesoamerica comes from archaeological sites in Honduras, considerably predating the classic Maya period.
Production scale
A small and growing producer with an expanding speciality share.
Flavour character
Can show fruit and floral notes with moderate acidity where fermentation is well managed.
The speciality sector is young and lot-to-lot variation is wide.
Related
Varieties grown
- TrinitarioTrinitario and Criollo-descended material, in a country holding some of the earliest archaeological evidence of cacao use.
Growing regions
- WampusirpiA remote area of the Gracias a Dios department in eastern Honduras, within the Río Plátano biosphere, where Miskito communities produce cacao in forest conditions.
- CopánA western Honduran region better known for its Maya archaeological site, and one where some of the earliest chemical evidence for cacao use in Mesoamerica has been recovered from nearby sites.
Sources
- ChocolateHQ editorial synthesis — ChocolateHQ(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)
- Quarterly Bulletin of Cocoa Statistics — International Cocoa Organization (ICCO)(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)